BBC finds that Assange is a liability

The BBC opened a can of worms when it allowed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to give the Thought for the Day lesson from his London embassy refuge where he is resisting extradition over rape allegations.

Radio 4's Today Programme was being guest edited by singer PJ Harvey, who called Assange a man of 'great courage' whose campaign of publishing government secrets is 'the essence of democracy'. 2013 was the year that Assange was largely forgotten about as whistleblower Edward Snowden released shedloads of documents without essentially talking about himself.

Assange has been largely off the grid since deciding to hide in an Ecuador embassy rather than defend himself against Swedish sex charges. Complaints have come into the BBC for allowing a fugitive to speak to the nation and not allow him to be interviewed by its presenters so his views could be challenged.

To be fair, the people complaining are the likes of the Daily Mail whose views would normally be deemed as a suitable case for treatment, but it does show that Assange is not quite as loved as he would like to think.